6/23-24 Yellowstone National Park, Montana

If you know anything about Yellowstone National Park, you know that like Disney World, it is stupendously famous and - particularly in summer - stupendously crowded.  Traffic jams and crowded attractions are just par for the course at this time of year.  Wednesday, June 23rd was our travel day to get to the Yellowstone area from Gardiner, Utah.  We got in and got set up by around 3:30.  We had had some road construction and other set-backs that made for a long trip from Utah.  We had every reason in the world to just take things easy and get ready to start cooking dinner by  5:00-ppm.   

Instead, we decided to just go "take a look"  and the commercial area  outside Yellowstone's West Gate.  We did. Then we thought: "Well, let's go check out the Yellowstone Visitor Center. " We did. Then we thought, "I wonder how long the line is to get into the park this late in the day?"  There was only a minimal  line.  Then  we thought: "Even though it's late, I wonder if we could see some of the geo-thermals?"  Boy, did we!  

Our first afternoon at Yellowstone, against all odds, we were able to see some of the major attractions including a well timed eruption of the "Old Faithful" geyser.  We had not brought any warm clothing and we were half frozen because the temperature had dropped. We were also caught in a about a half an hour traffic jam getting out of the park. But we were giddy with our good luck in being able to experience some of our "bucket list" Yellowstone goals totally unexpectedly on our first afternoon in the vicinity of the park. 

 We went back on  Thursday, June 24th.  We had brought our mascot Grizzy with us on the 23rd, but he was too worn out to join us on the second day. Good thing.  We spent over seven hours touring on the 24th.  We  are going up to Montana to visit our friends the Terwilligers for a few days and then returning to the Yellowstone area for a few more days.  However, if our Yellowstone adventures ended right now, both Diane and I would feel we had already achieved most of our main objectives for our Yellowstone visit.  

We hope you enjoy our pictures. The ones that look like abstract art are actually millions of tiny microorganisms that form mats and live in the warm waters of the geothermal formations in the park. I  will be developing and posting a blog highlighting  Yellowstone's geothermal history over the next few days.

Thanks for riding with us!

We  traveled up to Montana  to spend time with Alan and Carole Terwillerger at the Yellowstone Edge RV park.  You are right on the Yellowstone River with an incredible view of the mountains.  We met Alan and Carole in The Villages. They spend about four months a year in Montana and the rest of the year in The Villages.  We had a wonderful time, including Alan giving us a gravel backroad tour of an abandoned gold mine, a trip to the Natural Bridge park, lunch at Holly's Roadkill Saloon, a hometown parade at the small town of Big Timber, and  two evenings around the campfire.  It was a great time and Alan and Carole, and another Carole we met who also summers here were all generous and fun hosts.  Next stop is back to the Western Gate of Yellowstone.  We hope you enjoy these pictures.  

Thanks for riding with us!

We have been unbelievably successful in getting to see the major geothermal features of Yellowstone on this trip.  We focused on the southern loop in our first days in the park.  After our return from a couple of days in southern Montana, Diane and I spent 6/28 exploring the northern end of Yellowstone.  This area has very significant features of interest such as the Artists' Paint Pots, the Norris Geyser Basin, and the Mammoth Falls.  We also visited the Gardiner area of the Park, the North Gate, and the town of Gardiner just outside Yellowstone's  North Gate Entrance.  We did a lot of walking and a lot of climbing, especially at the Mammoth area.  We finished off our adventures of the day with a stop at a shop in West Yellowstone that had an old time soda fountain from 1908.  We split a float - Vanilla ice cream, Pepsi  Cola, one drink, two straws - just like people did when we were in high school.  It was a sweet ending to another sweet day.  Our plan is to spend the next few days recovering physically, and getting  Amelia, our coach,  cleaned up and ready to head north to Couer D' Alene, Idaho where we meet up with Erin and her family in early July.  We hope you enjoy these pictures. 

Thanks for riding with us!